Fiber placement machines for fabricating large composite structures are known in the art. During the molding operation material is supplied from a creel and placed by the fiber placement head into a mold. When the spools of material in the creel run out, the empty cores have to be removed from the creel and replaced with full spools. A typical creel may comprise thirty-two or more spools and the replacement of the empty spools with full spools is a time consuming process. It would be desirable to mechanize the spool replenishment process for the creels on a fiber placement machine to increase the efficiency of the machine.